Muddy check prompts evacuation at IRS office complex

All-clear given after second such incident in Burlington within 10 days

May 9, 2013

Police monitor the scene outside of the Lakeside Avenue building that houses the IRS and other offices, after discovery of a suspicious package prompted an evacuation there. / MATT SUTKOSKI / Free Press

Written by

Matt Sutkoski and Adam Silverman

Free Press Staff Writers

A muddy check, torn into pieces and sent to the IRS in Burlington, caused a hazardous-materials scare Thursday that prompted the evacuation of more than 100 office workers before the all-clear came — the second similar incident in the city in 10 days.

The incident began when the IRS reported the check’s arrival to police at about 10:30 a.m. Three hours later — after the fire alarms blared, after evacuees either went home or ordered pizza while waiting outside, after investigators learned there was no threat — everything was fine.

Outside the Lakeside Avenue building called the Innovation Center of Vermont, police said after it was all over that a person had found a check lying on the ground covered in mud. The person, presumably concerned some ne’er-do-well might discover and cash the check, ripped it to pieces, dropped it in an envelope and set it to the IRS, police said.

But by time the letter arrives, the mud on the check had dried and crumbled to the bottom of the envelope — a brown, granular substance that caused alarm in the wake of recent ricin-laced mailings to government officials in Washington and Mississippi.

So the police were called. The Burlington Fire Department and the Vermont Hazardous Materials Respons Team also were summoned.

The office building and emergency crews followed protocol and evacuated. Hazmat team members arrived and began work shortly after noon.

At least 100 workers from the various offices in the complex evacuated the site, and by noon many had left the area. The 25 or so who remained milled about or sat at nearby picnic tables and on benches. Later, boxes of pizzas were delivered.

The building’s fire alarm could be heard blaring from inside the red-brick structure until about 12:45 p.m.

“I just assumed it was a fire drill,” said Matt Dooley of Shelburne, an employee at the Vermont Energy Investment Corp., which has an office in the building.

After everyone evacuated, a team leader gathered workers and told them what was happening, Dooley said.

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Among them was Jim Massie of Rutland, a VEIC employee who was working at the Burlington office for the day. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he said.

“My keys and wallet are inside the building,” Massie explained.

But less than an hour later, a pair of Hazmat workers — clad in coveralls and wearing breathing devices — entered the building, fetched the envelope and determined its muddy contents were not a hazard.

The building reopened.

Numerous businesses have offices inside the Innovation Center, including VEIC, Efficiency Vermont, Planned Parenthood, the Lakeside Cafe, a pediatrician’s office, and workspaces for the University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care, according to a list of tenants posted outside.

Detective Cpl. Tom Nash said workers from all the offices had to be evacuated because everything in the building is so interconnected.

Thursday’s incident came 10 days after a letter aroused suspicions at the downtown Burlington office of U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, leading to the evacuation of some employees in the building while hazardous-materials crews were called in. The letter, received April 29, turned out to be an innocuous invitation to a peace conference.